This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Kathleen Wynne offers ‘hallelujah’ on John Tory’s win

Kathleen Wynne took time from her trade mission in China to offer a hearty “hallelujah” Tuesday when told that John Tory had been elected mayor.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, with Nanjing University president Chen Jun on Monday in Nanjing, China, sent her congratgulations to newly elected Toronto mayor john Tory. (Robert Benzie / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

That was Premier Kathleen Wynne’s immediate reaction early Tuesday when informed by reporters covering her trade mission to China that John Tory had just won the Toronto mayoral race.

“Congratulations to John. I’m very pleased for him and I look forward to working with him,” said Wynne, in China on a week-long mission to boost trade for Ontario.

“What I know is that John will want to work with us,” she said, praising Tory’s SmartTrack transit plan that helped him win.

“‎I think it’s got a lot to recommend it. It’s something that we can work with.”

Article Continued Below

Wynne, who has promised $15 billion for Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area transit expansion over the next decade, said Tory should also be able to‎ convince Prime Minister Stephen Harper to back more investment in the region.

“‎He is somebody who’s got good working relationships wi‎th both senior levels of government and that’s extremely important. We need a mayor in Toronto . . . who can work with the provincial government and the federal government.”

While Wynne defeated Tory in Don Valley West in the 2007 provincial election, the two have become friends and political allies.

She added she ‎also looking forward to working with new mayors like Brampton’s Linda Jeffrey and Mississauga’s Bonnie Cro‎mbie.

There was no love lost between the Liberal government and departing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

After city council stripped Ford of most of his powers in the wake of the crack cocaine scandal last year, Wynne refused to deal with him, instead opting for deputy mayor Norm Kelly.

Kelly returned the favour by endorsing her in the June 12 provincial election.

Thanks in part to that coziness, relations between Wynne and Doug Ford, the mayor’s councillor brother who stepped into the breach for him after he was diagnosed with cancer last month, were frosty.

Prior to the spring election, Doug Ford groused about the inappropriateness of Wynne conferring with Kelly.

“So I guess it’s going to be a meeting of two unelected officials running the largest city and largest province,” he said, referring to the fact that neither had faced voters yet.

“I’ve got an idea: why don’t we go to the polls tomorrow, why don’t we do a two-for-one deal — the unelected premier and the unelected deputy mayor.”

Still, Wynne was officially neutral in the Toronto mayoral race, although most Liberal MPPs and cabinet ministers publicly supported Tory.

Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid was one of the first on the exploratory committee that convinced the former Progressive Conservative leader to run for municipal office.

Duguid, who is in China with Wynne, said Tory will ensure the Scarborough subway extension will get built.

“Obviously it’s good news for the Scarborough subway, which is good news to me as someone from Scarborough, but we’re here in China to try to drum up business and I think it’s really going to help to have a mayor that’s going to be able to sell Toronto effectively, that’s professional, somebody who’s stable, somebody who has good business connections.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com